Natural Disasters - Page Text Content

2: Tornadoes are incredibly intense, spiraling windstorms. They reach down to the ground from the clouds of gigantic thunderstorms. Tornadoes can happen anywhere on Earth, but are most common in the central U.S. Especially during spring and summer. Tornadoes form usually at the edge of a thunderstorm where a mass of warm air collides with cooler air. These twisters will most likely be accompanied by rain and hail. | Tornadoes

3: About 1000 tornadoes hit the U.S. every year!

4: Volcanoes are formed when heat from the core and mantle causes melted rock to bubble up through the crust. A volcano is any place where lava emerges from the ground. | An active volcano is busy erupting, or giving signs that it might erupt soon. A dormant volcano seems to be sleeping, but it could erupt some time in the future. An extinct volcano is one that will probably never erupt again. | Ash spewed high into the atmosphere from an erupting volcano can travel great distances and even affect the weather.

5: Volcanoes

7: Earthquakes The Earth's crust is broken into about twenty chunks called tectonic plates. The plates are constantly moving, they can glide apart, scrape together, or smash head on. All of this action can cause an earthquake. Earthquakes are happening all day, every day, all over the world. Some are very gentle, too small to even be felt, but others can knock down buildings, cause landslides, and if they happen in the ocean, they can cause tsunamis.

8: One, of many, differences between a hurricane and tornado is that hurricanes can last several days; tornadoes last only minutes!

9: Warm water and moist are are needed to form a hurricane, plus some "spin" from Earth's atmosphere. The combination of these forces can create a devastating storm. When winds reach at least 74 mph, this storm is now considered a hurricane. | Hurricanes